-zēˌast, -zēə̇st, -zēˌaa(ə)st noun
( -s )
Etymology: Greek enthousiastēs, from enthousiazein
1. : a person who is or believes himself to be inspired or possessed by a divine power or spirit
a society of enthusiasts dominated by the conviction that they were spirit-possessed — G.W.H.Lampe
2. : a person who is visionary, extravagant, or excessively zealous in his religious views or emotions : fanatic
took to task mystics and enthusiasts whose faith transcended the bounds of reasonableness — Andrew Brown
3.
a. : a person who is ardently attached to a cause, object, or pursuit
a former mountain-climbing enthusiast — Current Biography
an impassioned enthusiast for both literature and painting — Times Literary Supplement
b. : a person of an ardent enthusiastic cast of mind : one who tends to give himself completely to whatever engages his interest
we are a nation of enthusiasts — Oden Meeker
Synonyms:
fanatic , zealot , bigot : enthusiast in early use may designate one claiming inspiration or showing such signs as rapture, madness, or marked emotionalism; now it is likely to indicate a person showing keen, ardent, or devoted interest
was not in the least an enthusiast, which literally means “possessed by God”. He was a casuist and a theorist — Francis Hackett
he had been in his youth an enthusiast for liberty, and had hailed the dawn of the French Revolution — T.L.Peacock
a chess enthusiast
a sailing enthusiast
fanatic is often used hyperbolically for enthusiast
a baseball fanatic
It may suggest a mad or irrational devotion and concentration, with resolute determination and uncompromising fixity
a virtuous fanatic, regarding all ways as wrong but his own, and thinking all men who would not walk as he prescribed wicked as well as mistaken — J.A.Froude
a utopia about which he was utterly dogmatic — which he explained to me with fanatic zeal — as dogmatic, as undeviating as the most rabid Communist — Carleton Beals
zealot applies to one showing ardent devotion to and vehement activity for protecting or furthering a cause
the reopening of village churches that had been closed by the action of local zealots — A.R.Williams
bigot applies to one blindly and obstinately devoted to his own creed or belief with stern, stiff-necked, dogged disdain, contempt, and intolerance of others
not that the modern bigot is any more tolerant or less cruel than her ancestors — G.B.Shaw